Three things:

a) Watch Mad Men. It’s a brilliant TV show, and a great reminder of how great it was back in the 1960s when women knew their place.

b) I actually thought things have changed, but thank god they haven’t. A very good friend of mine is doing some work at a very well respected Melbourne ad agency. One you will know. One with big accounts. One with big awards. One with big letters on the door. She is young, pretty and female. Here’s what she had to put up with today, and I quote:

1. One of the guys took a piss and a shit in the girls loo and didn’t flush it after lunch cos it was “funny”
2. The creative director couldnt be assed to go outside for a smoke so brought the ash tray inside and turned off the smoke detectors
3. The MD said that the problem with advertising now days is that everyone is too politically correct so should be more racist, sexist, play more practical jokes and should be more crude to improve company culture

I thought times had changed, but it’s great to see these attitudes are still alive and well.

c) Has anyone seen my can of spraypaint? I need to re-coat the glass floor/ceiling. Just this morning I caught one of the female account managers eyeing off my corner office while she was putting away the dishes. She should be ashamed.

Has anyone else heard of any other efforts by courageous advertising gents putting the ‘I’ back in sexism? Please share.

I went trawling in the De Pasquale library, looking for some inspiring weekend reading. I found a complete back collection of the American Marketing Association’s Journal dating back over 60 years. Wow.

I had lunch with Jules Starck today. She’s the smartest researcher I know, but she’s off to India for three weeks, so I thought I’d better pick her brain before she left, just in case she ate a bad curry and never returned. Jules is the Insight Manager at De Pasquale and she spends her days dispensing wisdom - the kind you want to hear. Today, I’m pleased to announce, was particularly fruitful. It turns out that Jules was doing some research into buyer behaviour in a recession and she’d written up the findings in a very easy to digest document, complete with catchy titles. You’ll already be familiar with the Lipstick Effect and possibly the Aldi Effect, but The Mr Burns Effect will be new to you, as will the others on the list. I’d link to Jules’s blog, Twitter Profile or LinkedIn page, but she doesn’t have any of those. Further proof that you can be under 30, smart and socially aware without socially networking your arse off.

The ten buyer behaviour trends in a recession are:

• The Aldi effect - finding cheaper retail outlets to purchase the same things, rather than not purchasing at all

• The lipstick effect - purchasing items of smaller value in place of more expensive luxury items as personal treat

• The armchair effect - consumers look to their homes as the new entertainment hub; triggers home upgrades as they to make houses ‘entertainment’ ready

• The rain-check effect - high value purchase decisions, or high risk decisions, will be put on hold, as consumers look to postpone any non-essential purchases to more settled economic times

• The Mr. Burns effect - consumers reduce charitable donations and ethical behaviours in the face of economic downturn

• The herd effect - even those consumers with financial stability will modify behaviours, influenced by the behaviour and panic of those around them

• The DIY effect - consumers will start opt for self-service rather than do-it-for-me, as decreasing discretionary spend forces them to cut back on non-essential services

• The Real Money effect - consumers avoid using voluntary credit as they fear committing to a future debt i.e. Will I have the money to pay off that sofa in 24 months time?

• The optimism effect - consumers will look to companies or brands with fun/light-hearted personalities that relieve the temporary doom & gloom of life

• The Calvin effect - Consumers look to reign in their hedonistic spending patterns in favour of a more conservative approach to their money (Calvin the protestant reformist, not the Klein)

Hondas are quicker than aeroplanes, but butterflies have a much harder comedown. The Euro is worth more than the dollar. The Motorola makes you talk all night and the smiley face will leave you terribly sad on Tuesday. Don’t be seen with a Mercedes Benz, everyone knows Mitsubishis are classier. Eating too much McDonald’s is bad for you, everyone knows that, but did you hear about what happened to Snow White? She took a bite from a green apple. It killed her.

Hi Zac, I’m running a new thread on my blog called Six Questions With… Seth Godin was the first cab off the rank, I was wondering if you’d like to be next? If so:

1. You’re young. The economy is fucked. Scared?
   1. Discuss.
2. You could have been a firefighter. Or a social worker. Or someone who rescues kittens. You chose marketing instead. Why?
3. Is there anything in particular about the world that you think needs changing and have you got any plans to do anything about it?
4. I have a new brand of toothpaste and I want you to buy it. Lots of it. What do I need to do?
5. Choose:
   1. Fame
   2. Fortune?

Cheers,
Matt

—

Following Seth? Biggest anti climax ever.

But yeah, I’ll send them through tomorrow. Good idea by the way.

Zac

—

1. Fuck no!

2. Is that even a question? Well, I’ve never lived in a time where the economy has suffered this badly, so perhaps it’s just that I’m naive. But as a Uni student, things aren’t going to affect me too heavily. In two years time when I graduate, I imagine things will just be starting to pick up with many doors opening for employment. Hopefully that’s just about the time the housing marketing is at its cheapest too. So no, I’m not too scared at all.

3. While kitten rescuing is a fall back in case the economy turns worse than I thought, a teacher at high school and a lecturer at Uni had a big influence on me. I decided to do a business degree because of the first and then major in marketing because of the second. Marketing is cool, creative, controversial and constantly changing (how’s that for some alliteration!). For me, there’s no question, this is my passion and I want to spend the rest of my life being a part of it.

4. Transport etiquette is a big one. If only there were more people like Martin Merton. But big worldly issues aside, I think consumer interruption is a problem and if the industry doesn’t change soon then the consumers will force it. As to what I plan on doing about it, I think social media, remarkability and tribal leadership are answers, all of which I’ll continue to push.

5. For me, that honestly wouldn’t be too hard. I only buy my current brand because that’s what my Dad bought for me as a teenager. Be remarkable and give me some social currency and you’ve probably converted me for life. Get the CEO to send me a witty hand written letter. Ask me if I want a giant eight foot toothbrush for no particular reason (I’d say, “Yes”). Heck, even getting the Marketing Manager to drop a comment on my blog would be a good place to start. But if you produce a thirty second spot, radio commercial or print ad, you don’t have a chance.

6. Secretly, deep down, everyone one wants both. Fame within the industry I’d like, but only for the right reasons. And enough fortune to live happily and help others would be nice too. But at this stage in my life, fortune for enough beer would probably be adequate.

How’s that?

Zac

The presenter would have prepared for weeks; researched diligently and practiced five times the night before, just to make sure everything went according to plan. No stone would have been left unturned. No ‘t’ would have been un-crossed. No ‘i’ left un-dotted.

Presentation day would have arrived. Seats would have been arranged. A screen erected at the front. The presenter would have turned up, ready to begin; a glass of water beside the lecturn; a hot cup of instant coffee on standby.

Marker pens would have been in hand, ready to highlight the important points; a few carefully-practised hand shadow animals would have lurking in the wings, ready to storm the virtual stage should the crowd require some half-time entertainment. A strange bunch of clear plastic sheets would have been piled neatly on the table, but they would have drawn negligible attention, because they were dwarfed by the strangest looking lamp the admin assistant had ever seen. The year was 1957.

“What’s that?” She would have asked (excuse my misogyny, I’ve been watching too much Mad Men).

“It’s an overhead projector,” the presenter would have announced proudly. “It’s the latest in presentation technology.”

The admin assistant would have nodded.

“Is there anything I can get you then before you begin, Mr Presenter?” She would have asked

“Yes,” Mr Presenter would have said. “I need a power point?”

“Power point?” She would have asked, a puzzled look on her face. “Well, there is one, but it’s way over there in the back of the room. If you want people to see your presentation I’ll need to get you an extension cord.”

Powerpoint, of course, the Microsoft version, spelled the end of the overhead projector back in the early nineties.

Slideshare.com, has spelled the end of the extension cord.

Here are ten brilliant presentations you need to watch if you want to be a better marketer.

Shift Happens

A look at how globalisation and digital technology has changed our world.

Universal Mccann International Social Media Research Wave 3

This is the Social Media Research done by Universal Mccann including 17,000 people in 29 countries. Detailed stuff

What the F**K is Social Media?

Social media for dummies; with swearing.

Visual and Creative Thinking:What We Learned From Peter Pan and Willy Wonka

Visual concepts for marketers - how to express yourself visually, handy if you’re presenting…

Big Brands & Facebook: Demographics, Case Studies & Best Practices

Forrester’s advice on Facebook. Very worthy if you’re getting asked about it.

Luxury Brand Marketing

Relevant because it’s about creating a desire for things no-one needs; something every marketer has to do sooner or later!

Great Quotes To Use & Repeat When You Can’t Find A Better Way Of Saying It

The title kind of says it all - the layout isn’t much, but they’re great quotes!

Seth Godin on Tribes

Haven’t got time to read the book? Here’s the picture version, yay!

NASA - GenY Perspectives

Why does NASA care about Gen Y? Because Gen Y will be giving them 124 billion dollars to poke around places no-one can see. You can bet they’ve done their research into engaging the kiddies.

Marketing Management By Philip Kotler

Go back and remember the stuff you forgot from marketing school: 719 slides from the 11th edition of the textbook.

The Internet is a largely unregulated place. Sure, corporate lawyers try and throw their muscle around when they sniff a suit, but the reality is, there are no rules. Rotten.com still exists over a decade on; spam continues to infiltrate from the darkest corners of the globe and short of selling kiddie porn, you can get away with anything you want; no matter how bizarre, how random (WTF?), how sick or how depraved. It’s the interwebs. That’s the way we like it. The less rules, the better, just as long as you’re not hurting anyone.

Daniel Oyston, my favourite Canberra-based writer since the late (great) Matt Price, wrote a lovely little piece yesterday about the rules of social media engagement - the ones that have been made up by social media commentators along the way. He questioned whether we should try and follow them, or just give up and let the marketers do what they want.

He knew the answer of course; dumb marketers will corrupt anything to make a quick buck. As former Naked exec Mat Baxter said over at MumBrella the other day: “We’re aware of the hypothetical rules in this sphere - there are a lot of people out there who claim to have the rule book. But the reality is that it will be shaped by what the consumer will tolerate.”

If a client ever comes to me asking for a stategy their consumers will ‘tolerate’, I will resign, on the spot (not once the press gets hold of it, not after no-one can believe what I’ve said anymore because I’ve lied to them in the past) because I will know right then and there that I have failed in my fundamental role as a marketing consultant, whose fundamental job is to build relationships with people; long-lasting ones. Profitable ones. Ones built on mutual respect.

Go to any party and the most popular person is the one who talks the loudest. They’re the one with the best stories (even if you know they’re lies); the one you tolerate because they’re good for a laugh after a few beers. They have the most friends when everyone is drunk and doesn’t care, but when people need someone to rely on, when they’re moving house, breaking up, falling in love and falling over, they’re the person you call after you’ve spoken to your real friends. If you want people to rely on your brand, you don’t want to be that person. You don’t want to lie to people.

You want to be the first person they call.

I’ve been lucky in the last few months to work with a bunch of clients who understand that fundamental value - that in an age where customer recommendations fly around the planet at the speed of light, 87% of people trust their friends opinions and only 14% trust ads any more (Source: Neilsen Global Trust in Adversiting urvey, 2007), any marketing strategy not built on trust is doomed to fail. I get to launch two massive social media campaigns in the coming months. One involves a company with a bigger presence in this country than McDonalds - another one involves a drink brand that outsells Coke in Queensland. It’s going to be interesing to put my money where my mouth is for those, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share the rules of social media engagement as I outline them to clients. These rules were born out of The Cluetrain Manifesto (a must read for anyone who thinks customers are happy to ‘tolerate’) and have grown up quickly after watching countless stupid marketers fuck their clients over by recommending social media strategies that take consumers for granted.

If you’re running a social media campaign, or a business for that matter, forget any other rules you’ve heard. Forget what the latest, greatest theory is, forget what your new Twitter hero said last night, forget what your lecturer said at uni, forget what your mate said at the pub, forget what your boss recommended, forget what the client says they want. These are the rules you need to obey:

Rule 1: Treat your customers the same way you’d treat your friends.

That is all.

Yesterday’s news that premier Anna Bligh looked outside the “Smart State” when developing her official election campaign raised my ire more than a little. According to MX, “the anna4qld site - which is emblazoned on every page with the slogan “Protecting Queensland Jobs” -  was developed by the Melbourne-based DTDigital and the Sydney-based Lawrence Creative Strategy.” I know DTDigitial do great work, but fucking hell Anna, it doesn’t send a very good message does it you turkey. Grrr.

This is a long story, but I’ll cut it short. I was in Victoria last week. Playing some shows. I had a gig in Bendigo on Saturday night. We turned up, no-one was there. We didn’t know why. Between the four of us we had two laptops, an iPhone, an Optus 3G wireless modem, three Internet-connected 3G phones and no clue. On Saturday afternoon online news media were in a flurry about the hottest Victorian day on record, but none of them were reporting the fire danger to any extent that we got an impression that it would be unsafe to head bush. The Melbourne forecast on the BOM website was down all day and I couldn’t get a forecast or a synoptic chart. We went to bed that night, 2km from a bushfire that killed people and destroyed 50 homes. The friend we were staying with in Bendigo lost her family home and the family shop in Marysville. None of us knew anything until we woke up on Sunday morning and saw the TV news. It was an epic fail of new media.

All the stories I hear are of people who had no idea the fire was coming. If we had decent broadband coverage in this country, an early warning system and mobile devices that worked in the bush, lives would have been saved. Hundreds of them.

Fail.

I’ve been spruiking social media and the virtues of customer engagement for a while now and it’s going quite well. It’s such an easy sell because the benefits are clear, it’s cheaper than a TV commercial, and virtually everyone on the planet is using at least one social media channel these days. More often than not, the people you need to talk to are half sold on the concept before you even sit down with them, so it’s just a matter of pushing them over the line. Still, it’s handy to have a nice overview of what social media marketing is about, where it’s come from, and exactly what it can do for you.

This Powerpoint presentation is my little baby. It’s grown up a lot over the last 12 months and has done a brilliant job of convincing clients, bosses and marketing managers that they need to be working in the social media sphere. It’s just at home on a giant screen in the boardroom of a multi-national bank as it is on the lunch-room table, so I thought it was about time I shared it with the rest of the world. If you need to sell social media to someone, hopefully you can find some inspiration here. Feel free to share it (you can view the slideshare version here) but please respect my (and DP Dialogue’s) copyright.

How Social Media has Changed Word of Mouth Marketing: Using the Internet to Build Long-Lasting Buzz about Your Brand